Well, here´s the next chapter! This story also hit over 10 followers. :D
I´m surpised how many of you like the story despite this being my very first try on a fanfic. I hope I won´t disapoint you at the end. Feedback and suggestions are always apreaciated. But enough of that, here´s chapter seven!
Enjoy
The sun had already risen well above the rooftops of the city buildings as Sejuani awoke. The dream she had still echoed in her mind. It had showed her how insignificant she was right now. Sejuani put on her armor and readied herself to go out with Quinn. She didn´t even know why she had agreed to accompany her in the frist place. Sejuani hated markets and buying stuff in general. There were just too many strangers and everybody just wanted to sell their shit, no matter what methods they had to use. But a promise was a promise, so she found herself before the Demacian´s door five minutes later.
"Quinn." She knocked twice. "I´m ready to head out." She didn´t even need to wait , the door opened immediately. Quinn didn´t wear her armor, just a shirt and a pair of trousers. She flashed Sejuani a smile.
"Took you long enough. It´s almost noon. The sooner we head out, the better. Also what is this get up? You´re not going to war or anything."
"I don´t have anything else. I also don´t need anything else. There is no point in having more than one outfit if they are all inferior to my current one."
"You can´t go over the market dressed like that. At least leave your helmet behind. And while we´re at it we can buy you something new."
"Thanks, but I´ll pass. I don´t need anything else." Still Sejuani took off her headgear and her bright blonde hair fell onto her shoulders. She hadn´t cut it in a while so it was longer than it would normally be. But she couldn´t bring herself to leave her headgear behind.
Quinn sighed in disappointment. "Alright, I supose we can head out."
"Wait, what about Irelia? Isn´t she coming along too?"
"Nope, said something about 'meditating' to 'fight her inner demons'?
"You don´t sound like your unhappy about that though."
"I´ll be honest with you. I can´t stand Irelia. Firstly I saw her killing people of Demacia, and while I do agree that her actions were somewhat justified in her situation, I still think she could have solved it with less bloodshed. Secondly she comes off really arrogant, she almost never talks and when she does her voice sounds like it´s drained of any emotion. Or am I wrong?"
"She is a very skilled warrior and also a very strong woman. I do respect her for that. I think her indifference towards us shows that she knows what she is doing. She has seen horrible things in the noxian invasion and probably lost countless friends. It´s only natural to not try to befriend too many people."
"Do you think I haven´t experienced horrible things? You yourself just lost your entire tribe only about a week ago, and while your not the most social person you´re still easy to converse with." There lay a certain bitterness in Quinn´s voice and Sejuani felt that maybe she shouldn´t have said her last sentence. There it was again, the akward silence that always occured when Sejuani couldn´t keep her mouth shut. She wanted to apologize this time but also didn´t see a reason to. Quinn wordlessly went downstairs.
She led the way as the two women left the Inn and strolled towards the east side of the town. The streets were buzzling with activity and much to Sejuanis surprise many of the villigers greeted them friendly. It was practically the opposite of Fellton, the people were happy about any traveler that passed through their town.
"Wow, I didn´t think the people would be that polite in Demacia after what I saw in Fellton." Sejuani tried to soothe the situation out. She didn´t want to have a fight with Quinn over something so trivial.
"Well, you had the extreme negative example in Fellton. Fossbarrow on the other hand is the extreme positive example. I´ve been here many times on my travels through Demacia, and never were the people here inpolite or rude. Most of the towns are somewhere between these two cities." Sejuani just noded. Luckily her bad mood seemed to have vanished. She enjoyed it when Quinn was holding one of her monologues. It somehow made her feel at ease. When they had traveled from Fellton to Fossbarrow Sejuani had often times just listened to her talking and had only rarely responed herself. This also prevented her from creating these akward situations. "Anyway, I need a new armor, so we need to pass by at the smith first. I already ordered it yesterday, when I fed Valor at the Pigeonry. The smith here knows me already, so it shoudn´t take too long. Also some new bolts would be nice. Additionally I want to buy some fruits. Always eating deer is getting stale after some time." After about five minutes the forge came in sight. The great oven and the table with all the weapons showed that the smith was a dilligent person. It was a woman, about ten years older than Sejuani, with short brown hair and a cruel scar on her cheek. When she noticed Quinn she immediately put her hammer down and greeted the Crossbowman with a hug.
"Quinn! It´s good to see you. You´ve been gone for ages!" Sejuani was caught by surprise, she didn´t think that Quinn was that popular. There was also a feeling that made her uncomfortable while she watched the scene, but Sejuani couldn´t say why.
"Yeah it´s been a while."
"Mathias told me you needed a new armor."
"It´s been a bit rough in the north." A faint smile appeared on her face. "The enviroment isn´t exactly welcoming. Long story short, my armor broke. As you are the best smith I know, I just headed for Fossbarrow to get a new one."
"You flatter me. As I see you also brought company."
"Yes, this is Sejuani, she´s from the Freljord. Met her in the bufferzone. She was growing sick of the north." Sejuani reached for the smith´s hand. It was riddled with weals from her work and Sejuani saw some burns on her limbs.
"The Freljord? Never been there, but from what I heard it´s a tough place to live in." Sejuani just noded in agreement. "Anyways, I´m Myria. I´ve known Quinn since her first trip up in the north. That was about five years ago. Had to repair her stuff countless times, cause she can´t watch out for her equipment."
"Traveling through Demcaia isn´t easy. Of course stuff if gonna break on a regular basis."
"Yeah, yeah, sure. Anyways I´ve got most of the pieces I need, but it´s gonna take some time. Won´t be finished until the evening. As for the price, 15 sliverswords with a bundle of crossbowbolts included."
"Thanks Myria. We´ll catch you in the evening then." Quinn seemed to be quite pleased with the result.
"Another thing, does your friend mind if I take a look at her armor? I´ve never seen something like this." The smith peeked at Sejuani with an intruiged look.
Sejuani raised an eyebrow." I prefer if you wouldn´t, though I can leave my helmet here if you want to inspect it."
"And that´s why we need to buy you new clothes, you don´t walk arround in a town fully armored." Quinn looked at Sejuani with a smirk. "All you Freljordian´s think about is how you can smash each others head in."
"There is a good reason why I am wearing my armor at all times. My experiences showed me that it is foolish to feel save at any time. And to be honest a lone ranger like you shouldn´t really wear something different than her armor." Sejuani had had plenty of situations in the past where it had came in handy that she was fully armored. An ambush by a troll patrol came to mind. She had almost killed 40 of them together with Volibear.
"I would really appreachiate that." Myria ignored Quinn´s comment and focused on Sejuani instead. The matter seemed very serious to her. Reluctantly Sejuani put her helmet on one of the tables. She knew already that it was something magical. After one of her raids into the Frostguards territory she had decided it would be for the best to enchant her whole armor to protect her from ice and magic.
"Don´t break it."
"I´ll treat it with utmost care." Myria took the piece of armor and looked like a child who had gotten a present from her parents.
The smith and the two women parted ways and Quinn and Sejuani turned towards the giant market place. There were a wide variety of stalls, ranging from simple fruit and meat stalls to jewelry boths and cloth stands. Quinn headed straight for one of the fruit stalls, Sejuani just tagged along. Most of the things Sejuani had never seen before. In Freljord fruits were rareties and as such too expensive to buy as food. Sejuani tasted some of them before of course. It had been one of the perks of a warchief. But the sher amount of the goods and their relatively low price surprised Sejuani. Aparently it was very obvious as Quinn chuckled as they passed one of the many stalls.
"Impressed already? If I had known thats all it took to impress you I should have taken you to the grand market of Demacia. It is at least ten times as big."
Sejuani just noded. She had to admit, it was very impressive compared to what most of the market in the Freljord looked like. Then again she had not visted a real 'City' up in the north, always just small villages or tribes. Ashe´s residency had probably something similar. Sejuani still remembered the day she had gotten Ashe´s truce offer. A large cravan with grain and other things. At that time she had burned the whole food to show that the Winters Claw didn´t need any help to survive, it was strong enough. In retrospective it was a pretty stupid decison. If she´d just used it to feed her warriors and overrun Ashe, but her pride had prevented her from doing that. Quinn studied the different wares and prices. One of the vendors noticed her interest.
"Need anythin miss?"
"Yes, a kilo of potates and beans as well as a jar of honey please." The man weightened the grouceries and fetched a honeyjar from the hself behind him. He put the wares infront of Quinn.
"Something else?"
"No thanks, that´ll be all."
"Alright, the potates are two and the beans and honey are three each, so eight silverswords please." Quinn searched for the money and paid the vendor. As they left the stall Sejuani was almost disappointed.
"This is rather basic . I thought you would go all out today."
"Potatoes and beans don´t start to rot as fast as many of the exotic things. And honey basically never expires. It was just practical thinking. If you want though we can go back and try something else."
"Nah, I´m fine."
Quinn grinned. "That´s what i thought."
Quinn piloted through the crownd and headed for the backery next. The amount of people here was amazing. Sejuani had never seen so many civilians on one place. As they entered the backery the air was filled with flour and the smell of freshly backed bread was overwhelming. Bread was one Sejuanis favorite foods. It was very simple yet delicious and stuffed the stomach. Unfortunatly it was difficult to grow wheat in the north, so it had been a rarity on Sejuani´s menu. Quinn purchased three big loafs of bread, one for each of the women. Sejuani was tempted to just get another one for herself but managed to overcome her desire. She didn´t want to show any signs of weakness towards Quinn. The rest of the afternoon, they spent browsing through all kinds of shops and stalls. Oddly enough they bought almost nothing. The sun approached the horizon as the two travelers returned to Myria´s forge. She was still hard at work and didn´t notice her comstumers immediatly. Much to Sejuani´s delight she found her helmet without scraches. The smith looked up as Quinn and Sejuani stood only about two meter from her.
"Oh hi, you´re back. Just give me a minute." She delivered a few strong but decisive blows to the piece before her. A small sword, which was still glowing bright red due to the heat. Then Myria hardened the piece of metal in a sink and put her hammer down. She vanished through a door at the back of the forge and returned with chestarmor in her hands. Compared to Quinn´s current one, which was white, it was azurite blue and brown. The back of the armor was covered in blue cloth that looked like giant feathers. Myria left for the other room once again and brought back two golden shin guards and a small headgear.
"All is exactly as you ordered it, with a armguard at the right where Valor can land. I also got 50 new crossbowbolts for you."
"Thanks Myria, you´re the best. I´m gonna try it out right now."
"Was that the only reason you didn´t wear your armor today?" Sejuani crossed her arms. Had Quinn just teased her before?
Quinn chuckled ."Yes and no. While I didn´t wear it today because I would get a new one, it´s also true, that sometimes you need something more relaxing than armor." Myria now turned towards Sejuani and reached out to her hand. "Thank you Sejuani for leeting me inspect your helmet. You Freljordians are really something when it´s about craftsmanship. I´ve learned much from this piece alone and you have my gratitude for it."
"It´s nothing." Sejuani just muttered. She always felt a little akward when people praised her, especially someone she didn´t know. Quinn took her newly aquired piece of clothing and just put it over her shirt. It took her about tow to three minutes to get everything right. She now looked more like a soldier than a lone nomad. Sejuani couldn´t stop herself from thinking, that the outfit looked outstanding compared to her former one. The blue colour had something majestic about them. The new shin guards also gave much more protection but at the same time didn´t restrict her agility.
"So, do I look alright?" Quinn gave Sejuani an expecting look.
"I suppose it´s alright. But a bit too much blue for my tastes." Sejuani smirked.
"Really?" The curiosity on the Demacian´s face had changed to a hesitant smile.
"I was just joking, it looks good on you." The smirk became a wide grin.
"Well that´s good then." Quinn now cheerfully replied." Normally your not really the person for jokes."
"Depends on my mood. Anyways, we should go now. I still need to look after Bristle and I believe Valor would also like to see your new getup."
"Yes, you´re right." Quinn turned toward the Forgekeeper. "Thank you Myria, for everything. We´ll see each other eventually!" Quinn reached for the smiths hand. But Myria pulled her in for another hug.
"Ah, no biggy. I´m sure you´re gonna return safe. Can´t go wrong with such a strong warrior beside you."
Quinn and Sejuani left the forge. Quinn went for the pigeonry to see after Valor and Sejuani to the stables, so they parted ways. The air slowly grew colder as the sun disapeared, but it was nothing compared to the Freljord. When Sejuani arrived at the stables, Bristle was aslept, so she just filled a bit of hey and water into his troughs and peted him on the head once. For outsiders it seemed that her reationship to her mount was just like any soldier-horse one. But to Sejuani Bristle meant much more. They had survived countless battles together and traveled through numerous snowstorms. He was the only companion she had not lost. He had also never once betrayed her trust. Even after everybody died in the avalanche she still had her one friend. Or maybe now two or three? Sejuani didn´t know if she really could count Irelia and Quinn as friends although she very much enjoyed their company. Especially the demacian Crossbowman intruiged her, dispite their differences in virtues and ideals. There was something that made her feel better when Quinn was arround although she couldn´t really pinpoit why.
When Sejuani returned to the inn Quinn already waited at one of the tables. Most of the tables were, again, already taken. But Quinn had somehow managed to get a free one. Poppy wasn´t present today. She probably left Fossbarrow to resume her quest for the hero. After ordering for three people, Sejuani went upstair to get Irelia. She was still in her room, sitting on her bed in a meditating pose when Sejuani entered.
"Quinn and me are gonna eat something now, you want to join us?"
"If I´m not a bother for you two, yes."
"You´re not, at least not for me. As far as Quinn goes I think she just has difficulty accepting what you did in Fellton. She´ll understand in time."
"You say that now, but I´m not so sure. I can see disgust in her eyes when she looks at me, and understandanly so. But let´s not take root here, Quinn´s probably already waiting for us." Irelia rose from her bed and followed Sejuani downstairs. Three bowls with what looked like a bean stew already rested on the table Quinn occupied. Soon after the waitress, a you blonde woman, brought three big mugs of ale as well. After their hunger was sated Quinn spoke up.
"So, what is our next destination. You said Fossbarrow, but after that..."
"To be honest I´ve no idea. What about you Irelia?" Sejuani said with a stern face. She had not really thought about how she would continue her travel.
"As stated before, if follow your lead Sejuani, where-" The Freljordian cut her off.
"ever I go? As you´ve just heard, I don´t know where to go. Let´s assume you were free to go, what would be your next destiantion?"
"To the place the poeple of Mount Targon adivsed me to go to eradicate the voice within me. Shurima."
"Shurima?!" Quinn exclaimed. A few of the other guest at the Inn turned towards the trio as the Demacian shot up. "We´d have to travel at least a month or to to get there, besides Shurima is huge. Do you even know where to go there?"
"Bel´Zhun. And from there inwards to the old captial." Dispite Quinn´s sudden outburst Irelia raimed as calm as ever.
"You know there a rumors of the resurection of Azir? He wants to bring Shurima back to his former glory. If you ask me it´s a very bad idea." Quinns face was filled with worry and insecurity. Sejuani had heard some rumors regarding the 'Emperor of Shurima'. Apparently he awoke from a deep slumber and wanted to restore his empire once more. Up until now Shurima had been a lose comglomerate of trading cites and small oasis villiges, but Azir tried to bring back the once glorious cities of the past. Sejuani had never been interested in the desert empire in the past, so she didn´t really know what that meant. Neverthelss it facinated her that Irelia wanted to go that far away, and Sejuani just decided to join her. She needed some change from the north anways, so she might as well see something of the world.
"But it´s also a very thrilling idea." Sejuani smilled. "Traveling to other countries is proving to be interesting to say the least. Alright, I travel there with you Irelia. Our next target is gonna be Bel´Zahn."
"Bel´Zhun." Irelia corrected her.
"Whatever. Quinn, surely you can lead us to a Demacian harbour which leads to Bel´Zhun."
"It is currently controlled by Noxus. "Quinn replied with a dead serious face. "No ships sail from demacian ports to noxian ones. Not since the Invasion of Ionia. I can however lead you to the noxian border where you can enter a noxian ship to Bel´Zhun, though I strongly advise against it."
"It´s settled then." Sejuani said." We´re leaving tomorrow morning."
"As you wish." Irelia seemed to be unimpressed by her decision. If she was happy about it she didn´t show it.
"Hang on, you can´t just decided that on a whim." Quinn was clearly unhappy with the result.
"You don´t have to guide us if you don´t want to Quinn. I´m sure Irelia and me will find the way alone too. But I suppose, that means, we would part ways already." Sejuani didn´t look particulary sad, but couldnt hide her disappointment. She had enjoyed the trip with Quinn so far, but she could understand that Quinn didn´t want to go into noxian territory.
"Uhh, god damn." She gritted her teeth. "Alright, I´ll join you, at least till you reach the border. If I leave you by yourself, who knows how many villages you two will annihilate."
"Ha, I don´t think you´ll be able to stop us from doing that." Sejuani joked.
The rest of the evening went by quickly as they talked about rumors of the 'Shuriman rebirth' and their plans for the next days. Quinn was still very sceptical about this 'adventure', and she didn´t hesitate to remind Irelia and Sejuani about that. Despite that it seemed that she did not want to leave the two to themselves. When the three of the went upstairs to their rooms midnight had already passed. Irelia wished the other two a good night and entered her room. Sejuani wanted to do the same but Quinn stoped her.
"Seju, thanks for today. I was happy you joined me."
"Seju?" Sejuani didn´t know how to react to Quinn. "Never heard that kind of nickname. And I would prefer to keep it that way."
Quinn gave her a faint smile."We´ll see about that. Well then, goodnight."
"See you tomorrow."
When Sejuani lay down she was very satisfied. Today had been a good day. Despite her difficulty of showing it, she had enjoyed keeping Quinn company. She now also had a new goal to reach and she didn´t feel alone anymore. Maybe this was the first step out of her misery? She feel asleept without any doubt for the frist time since the end of her 'reign'.
